I'll Stand By You
by Berrie Salamander
Summary: One-shot. Tai's been having a bad week, and he can't think of a worse end than the phone ringing constantly all day. But by picking it up, he starts to solve some of the problems he's been experiencing.


**Okay, so this is a response to Belladora Black's friendship/romance challenge over on the Digimon Challenges Forum, which I won't plug too much, since it's my forum -.- Anyway, I got the pairing of Tai/Matt and the prompt: "I'll Stand by You". I hope you like it :)**

The phone was ringing. Again. It had been ringing at about twenty minute intervals all day, but Tai had been ignoring it. He didn't care who it was because, well, it had been a bad week. Between getting fired from his job, though it was admittedly only a part time one, getting the worst grades in the class, and getting dumped by his girlfriend, he had also done something to upset Kari. What he had done was a mystery, but maybe it was her who had been calling him all day, demanding an apology. And then there was Matt and Sora, neither of whom had spoken to him all week.

This time, when it went to answer phone, whoever had been calling left a message.

"_Tai, why won't you pick up? I really need to talk to you, you idiot!'_

So it was Kari. Tai sighed, picked up the phone, and dialled the number for his parents' house. Kari picked up immediately.

"Tai, is that you?" she asked before he could say anything.

"Yes, Kari, it's me," he replied. 'Have you been calling me all day?"

"Pretty much. I need to talk to you about Matt and Sora –"

"So do you know what's going on? Because neither of them have been talking to me all week," Tai cut in.

"Of course I know what's going on, T.K. told me," Kari sighed. "So you don't? Oh," her voice softened. "That would explain why you haven't tried to talk to either if them."

"Can you please explain what's going on, Kari?" Tai said, feeling more impatient by the minute.

"One of those two can," said Kari. "Call them. I don't know much myself, only that they've fallen out. I was mad at you because I thought you knew, but weren't going to do anything about it, because you secretly want them to break up. But if they haven't told you…"

"Alright, I'll call them," said Tai. "Bye, Kari. Tell Mum and Dad I say hi."

"I will. Bye, big brother."

The phone went dead on Kari's end of the line. Tai hesitated. Who should he call first? An argument between the two would explain why they were both acting so weirdly all week. Sora was more friendly with him. They had known each other longer than he had known Matt, and he understood her better. But, then again, maybe he understood her too well, and any discussion with her about Matt would end in him just agreeing with her side of the story. So he dialled Matt's number.

It took a while for him to answer. Finally, there was a click.

"Hello?" came a tired, fed-up voice. Matt.

"Hey Matt, it's Tai," he said straight away. "I'm calling… well, I'm calling because I wanted to know how you're doing after that argument with Sora that you both forgot to tell me about."

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that. I only told T.K. about it, but the fact you know means he's probably told Kari…" Matt paused. "Anyway, you want to know how I'm doing? I'm fine, really. We haven't broken up about it… but we haven't spoken for three days."

"What happened?"

"We argued about a lot of little things," Tai could almost visualise Matt shrugging as he said it. "About all those girls that follow me when I do concerts, about the fact that my band go to other cities and she's left behind. That sort of thing. I told her I was doing it to raise money, and it was something that I loved, but she wouldn't have it. I've tried to apologise, but she's not having it."

"Oh," Tai wasn't sure what to say. That if Sora was _his_ girlfriend, he'd never leave her to go to another city for a weekend's worth of gigs? No, that wouldn't come across well. "I guess you'll just have to keep working at it. Keep apologising, and it might be good to cancel a few of those gigs. Spend more time with her, you know."

Tai couldn't give advice, he knew he couldn't. It wasn't the sort of thing he was good at. But he would try his best, since Matt and Sora were both good friends, and they actually needed help sometimes.

"I guess I could do that," Matt conceded. "I think you're advice might be better than T.K.'s, and he always seemed more of the sensitive type than you. I'll phone you back, and tell you how it goes. Thanks, Tai."

"That's alright, Matt," Tai replied. "And remember; in case anything like this happens again… tell me. Don't keep it all bottled up, because that never works, and I thought you'd learnt that from experience. I'll always stand by you, and Sora. Unless you do something absolutely awful!"

Matt gave a half laugh. "Alright, I'll bear that in mind. Bye, Tai."

The phone went dead before Tai could reply, but as he put the phone down, he felt the happiest he'd been all week. At least he'd managed to rectify the Kari problem, and possibly the Matt and Sora one. Now he just had to do some homework, and find a new job.


End file.
